How big is Airbnb in West Hollywood?

Short answer: About 750 listings, 475 of them with recent activity, a 32% increase in active listings in 7 months

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How big is Airbnb in West Hollywood? Our answer is based on data from a website called Inside Airbnb.

There were 761 West Hollywood listings in January, versus 615 in May of last year. We only counted listings that Inside Airbnb said were physically located within the city’s borders. The numbers would have been higher if we had included every listing that used “West Hollywood” in the description, regardless of actual location.

Notes: We included a few more listings than Inside Airbnb to maintain consistency between May and January. If a listing was categorized by Inside Airbnb as a West Hollywood listing in either month, we treated it as a West Hollywood listing in both months. “Active” was defined for this analysis as having a review in the prior six months. Sources: Inside Airbnb; our analysis.

We were particularly interested in “active” listings. We didn’t know for sure which ones were rented recently, so we used reviews as a proxy. We counted any listing as active if it got a review in the prior six months. By this definition, there were 475 active listings in January.

Growth of Airbnb in West Hollywood

The number of West Hollywood listings grew 24% over a seven-month period from May 24, 2015, to January 2, 2016. Over 400 new listings were added and some were removed. The number of active listings increased by 32%. This growth occurred despite the City Council’s July action “to clarify the existing prohibition of Short Term Rentals.”

Notes and sources: Same as above.

Active listings in West Hollywood

Our analysis of the 475 active listings found:

$134 average rate per night (from $35 for a shared room to $625 for a whole home)

70% offering the whole home (30% only a bedroom)

33% offered by hosts with more than one listing

78% rented more than once a month (assuming only half of renters left a review)

Over 1,500 rentals a month (using the same assumption)

332 of the active listings were for whole units. We don’t know how many of them were full-time visitor rentals. For comparison, the most recent Census Bureau estimate was that the city had 16,998 renter-occupied housing units and 726 vacant housing units available for rent (American Community Survey, 2000-2014, Tables B25003 and B25004).

Short answer: About 750 listings, 475 of them with recent activity, a 32% increase in active listings in 7 months|
How big is Airbnb in West Hollywood? Our answer is based on data from a website called Inside Airbnb.
There were 761 West Hollywood listings in January, versus 615 in...

DavidWarrendavid_warren@post.harvard.eduAdministratorWeHo by the Numbers

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reports using data to explore city government policy, performance, and community issues. Focused on West Hollywood (WeHo), Beverly Hills, Culver City, Los Angeles, and Santa Monica. Researched and written by David Warren as a private citizen. This is not a government website.